County, WisDOT Plan $2.6 Million Mason Street Bridge Rehab

E. Mason Street Bridge. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County is working with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation on a plan to rehabilitate the E. Mason Street Bridge over N. Lincoln Memorial Drive.

Engineers recorded spalling or cracking on the bridge deck, deterioration along joints, settling of sidewalk pavement and loose concrete falling away from the bottom of the bridge. The bridge has been rated as “structurally deficient,” according to a county budget document.

That means the bridge needs repairs to be maintained in the long run, but it doesn’t mean the bridge is unsafe, Andrea Weddle-Henning, Director of Transportation Engineering for the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), told Urban Milwaukee.

The total project cost is estimated at approximately $2.65 million, according to numbers provided to the county Capital Improvements Committee in August this year. The project requires a 20% local funding match from the county. The committee, which makes recommendations to the county executive, included $471,000 for the bridge near the top of its list for the 2025 budget.

The state also scheduled the project for construction in 2025 and has approved $2.12 million in federal funding for the project through its Local Bridge Program. The funds will expire in 2027, according to a Capital Improvements Committee document.

The bridge is actually controlled by Milwaukee County Parks. The county parks system has more than 170 pedestrian bridges and many vehicular bridges, which are managed by MCDOT. In recent years, the department has cataloged its bridges and the associated maintenance needs, discovering the department likely does not have enough long-term funding to maintain them all.

The bridge will be closed to all traffic during construction, according to an October 2023 project overview by James Sadowski, an engineer with Michael Baker International, a consultant on the project. Planners anticipate construction taking six weeks, beginning in April and running until mid-May. They did consider a partial closure of the bridge, keeping one lane open, but it would have extended the construction timeline. Many events drawing large crowds and increased traffic occur along the lakefront during the summer, which creates challenges for the project. The plan is to “Get in and get out as fast as possible,” according to Sadowski’s overview.

Weather permitting, construction could begin as soon as March. “We want to start as early as possible, because we want to finish before the Memorial Day holiday,” Weddle-Henning said.

Construction will be managed by WisDOT. Crews will reseal the bridge deck, replace joints, resurface both approaches to the bridge and add protective netting to the underside of the structure.

Traffic along N. Lincoln Memorial Drive will be reduced to one lane in each direction while construction crews repair the bottom of the bridge. The plan is to make the repairs during low-traffic windows.

When the bridge is closed to traffic, a detour will send eastbound and northbound traffic along N. Prospect Avenue; westbound and southbound traffic will be sent along E. Michigan Street, N. Cass Street and N. Prospect Avenue; and pedestrian and bicycle traffic will be directed to the nearby Oak Leaf Trail, which runs through Juneau Park connecting N. Lincoln Memorial Drive and E. Mason Street.

Planners do not believe the project will cut off access to the nearby Milwaukee County War Memorial or the Milwaukee Art Museum. The War Memorial parking structure in the base of the bridge will also remain open.

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Related Legislation: See the funding recommendation for the 2025 county budget